Jonathan Milan narrowly betters Mads Pedersen to take victory in Deutschland Tour 2024 prologue

Lidl-Trek's Jonathan Milan has taken victory in the opening prologue of the 2024 Deutschland Tour after a short, speedy 2.9 kilometre test in Schweinfurt to open up the race, narrowly defeating his teammate Mads Pedersen.

Of the early pace setters, the likes of Alpecin-Deceuninck's Tibor del Grosso and the experienced Roger Kluge set some of the faster times. Those efforts were beaten by the likes of Marco Haller and Jannik Steimle though, with the latter's time of 3:21,60 proving a real test to best.

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Eventually though, Steimle's effort was bettered by Stefan Bissegger. Sadly for the Swiss however, he'd barely got off the bike when Ethan Hayter went even quicker again. Whilst the differences had been very minimal, Jonathan Milan then blew the rest of the field away with a time nearly 3 seconds quicker than Hayter.

Maikel Zijlaard went close to Milan's effort but slotted into a provisional second place. Proving the strength of Milan's time, his compatriot Filippo Ganna couldn't come close, and although Mad Pedersen threatened taking the lead, the victory was his teammate's.